How to use filters in Select Special

Why use filters

When searching for cells in large spreadsheets, you often get hundreds or thousands of results. Filters let you narrow down results to exactly what you need.

For example, instead of selecting all matching cells, you can select only:

• Numbers greater than 100
• Text that contains “email”
• Dates within a specific range
• Only TRUE or only FALSE values
• Specific error types like #REF! or #DIV/0!
• Only duplicate values

Filters work with most Select Special actions, including finding entered values, formulas, precedents, dependents, and more.

Advanced feature

Filters are available with Select Special Advanced subscription. Basic selection via “Select All” remains available in the free version.

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Available filters

Select Special provides 6 filter types that can be combined:

Filter	Description	Use case
Numbers	Filter by numeric value or range	Find values > 1000, between 0 and 100, negative numbers
Text	Filter by text content or length	Find cells containing “TODO”, starting with “ID-”
Dates	Filter by date or date range	Find dates before deadline, within Q1 2024
Boolean	Filter TRUE/FALSE values	Find only TRUE or only FALSE cells
Errors	Filter by error type	Find all #REF! errors, any error
Duplicates	Filter by first occurrence or duplicates	Find first occurrences only, or duplicates only

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How to apply filters

1. Start a search action

Select your range and choose any search action (e.g., “Entered values”, “Formulas”, “Precedents”).

2. Configure your search options

Select the types of values you want to find (numbers, text, dates, etc.).

3. Open the filter step

After configuring your search, click Next to open the filter configuration page.

4. Set your filter criteria

Configure one or more filters based on your needs. Each filter type appears as a separate section.

5. Apply and select

Click Select to find cells matching both your search criteria and filter conditions.

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Filter types

Numbers filter

Filter cells containing numeric values.

Operator	Description	Example
Show all	No filtering (default)	—
Ignore	Exclude all numbers	—
Equal to	Exact match	= 100
Not equal to	Exclude exact value	≠ 0
Greater than	Values above threshold	> 1000
Greater than or equal	Values at or above	≥ 50
Less than	Values below threshold	< 0
Less than or equal	Values at or below	≤ 100
Between	Values in range (inclusive)	10 - 20
Not between	Values outside range	Not 10 - 20
Positive	Only positive numbers	> 0
Negative	Only negative numbers	< 0

Text filter

Filter cells containing text values.

Operator	Description	Example
Show all	No filtering (default)	—
Ignore	Exclude all text	—
Contains	Text includes substring	Contains "error"
Does not contain	Text excludes substring	Not contains "test"
Starts with	Text begins with	Starts with "ID-"
Does not start with	Text doesn’t begin with	Not starts with "#"
Ends with	Text ends with	Ends with ".com"
Does not end with	Text doesn’t end with	Not ends with "!"
Equal to	Exact text match	= "Complete"
Not equal to	Exclude exact text	≠ "N/A"
Length between	Text length in range	Length 5 - 10 characters
Length not between	Text length outside range	Length not 0 - 3

Tip

Text matching is case-sensitive. “Error” and “error” are treated as different values.

Dates filter

Filter cells containing date values.

Operator	Description	Example
Show all	No filtering (default)	—
Ignore	Exclude all dates	—
Equal to	Exact date match	= 01/15/2024
Not equal to	Exclude specific date	≠ 12/31/2023
Before	Dates earlier than	Before 01/01/2024
After	Dates later than	After 06/30/2024
In range	Dates within period	01/01/2024 - 03/31/2024
Not in range	Dates outside period	Not in Q1 2024

Note

Date filtering uses your spreadsheet’s timezone settings.

Boolean filter

Filter cells containing TRUE or FALSE values.

Option	Description
All	Show all boolean values (default)
True	Show only TRUE values
False	Show only FALSE values
Ignore	Exclude all boolean values

Errors filter

Filter cells containing formula errors.

Option	Description
Any error	Show all error types (default)
#NULL!	Incorrect range reference
#DIV/0!	Division by zero
#VALUE!	Wrong value type in formula
#REF!	Invalid cell reference
#NAME?	Unrecognized formula name
#NUM!	Invalid numeric value
#N/A	Value not available
Ignore	Exclude all errors

Duplicates filter

Filter values by their occurrence within your selection.

Option	Description
All	Show all values (default)
First occurrence	Show only first instance of each
Duplicates	Show only values that appear more than once

Tip

Use “First occurrence” to keep only the first instance of each value. Use “Duplicates” to find repeated values for cleanup.

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Combining multiple filters

You can apply multiple filters simultaneously. Each filter only checks values of its own type and ignores others:

• Numbers filter checks only numeric values
• Text filter checks only text values
• Dates filter checks only date values
• Boolean filter checks only TRUE/FALSE values
• Errors filter checks only error values
• Duplicates filter checks all value types

When a filter encounters a value that’s not its type, it simply passes that value through.

Example: Numbers > 100 + Text contains “email”

• Number 150 → Numbers filter checks (passes), Text filter skips → ✅ selected
• Text "test@email.com" → Numbers filter skips, Text filter checks (passes) → ✅ selected
• Text "hello" → Numbers filter skips, Text filter checks (fails) → ❌ not selected

Common combinations:

• Numbers + Duplicates → Find duplicate amounts
• Text + Duplicates → Find duplicate text entries
• Numbers + Text → Filter both numbers and text in mixed data

Tip

The Duplicates filter is special — it works across all value types and can be combined with any other filter.